What happened to Low Dog

[shan]

Hello Ephriam
just to apologize for spelling your name wrongly.
Shan.

[KarlKoz]

Shan-I found these 3 books on Amazon.com:

Standing Rock Sioux (Images of America)
by Donovin Arleigh Sprague (Paperback - May 2004)
Price: $16.99

Pine Ridge Reservation (Images of America)
by Donovin Arleigh Sprague (Paperback - November 15, 2004)
Price: $19.99

Cheyenne River Sioux: South Dakota (Images of America)
by Donovin Arleigh Sprague (Paperback - May 1, 2003)
Price: $19.99


KarlKoz

[Don Blake]

How good are these? I checked on the Amazon site and used the look inside function and some of the pictures were labelled incorrectly - forgivable, perhaps, when it's an 'unknown' individual, but surely not when Little Wound is identified as Young Man Afraid... I find this kind of problem sadly all too common for books in this field.

[shan]

Firstly, thanks to KarlKoz for putting me onto those books, I have just ordered them from Amazon. Yes I agree with you Don, I have lots of books with sloopy crediting of images, including the Little Big Horn, Tiospaye, by Kenneth Sheilds, {as bad as it gets, }but, and it is a big BUT, if you have the bug as I do, and you want to collect images of the Sioux and Cheyenne from around the 1860/70/80/90s, you have to grab anything that comes along.
Shan

[Don Blake]

Yeah, I know what you mean, but the Shields book is bad. Is it the same publisher?

[hutchens]

There was a Donald Low Eagle Butte, SD Class of 66 who claimed to be a grandson. Maybe it is possible to contact him.

Good Luck

[glenbow]

There is an interesting chapter about Low Dog in Decost Smith's book, "Red Indian Experiences", in which the author states that the man was also known as White Guts. In regard to the photograph of Lakota leaders at Standing Rock in the summer of 1881, credited to the photographer, Haynes, my opinion is that the man seated in the center holding the tomahawk is indeed Low Dog. This photograph was mis-labelled before the publication of Utely's book, having been done so in an early edition of North Dakota History, and later in a book about Haynes called "Following the Frontier". None of the men in the group portrait resemble any image that I have seen of Crow King, who apparently was only photographed one time by David F. Barry at Ft. Buford in 1881. I did discover a portrait sketch of Crow King, made by Rudolf Cronau at Standing Rock in 1882. Crow King's hair is still long in the portrait, and he wears a traditional eagle feather, even though he was supposed to have been a member of the Indian Police at that time (according to agent James McLaughlin's 1883 annual report from Standing Rock, many Lakota men had their hair cut short that year). The Cronau drawing bears a much closer resemblance to that of the man photographed by Barry than to the man holding the tomahawk in the Haynes portrait.

[glenbow]

As a footnote to the question of whether or not Long Dog and Low Dog were one and the same - they were not. Long Dog was a Hunkpapa who went to live in the Wood Mountain area of Saskatchewan after LBH & later surrendered to US military authorities with Crow King's band at Ft. Buford. The photos of him at the Glenbow archives show an older looking man than the one named Low Dog in the photographs taken by David Barry in 1881. There are a couple of photographs at Glenbow which show Long Dog holding a three-bladed war club, which is now on display at the RCMP Museum in Regina. Stanley Vestal spoke of a man named Long Dog who fought at the battle of Kildeer Mountain, and C. Frank Turner mentions him in his book "Across the Medicine Line". In it, there is a photograph of a man named Long Dog seated on a horse with a similar background and composition to one I have seen of Rain-in-the-Face, taken at Standing Rock after 1881. The rider looks identical to the man in the photos at the Glenbow photo archives, and even wears the same leggings with a distinctive beadwork pattern. In the caption for the photo in his book, Turner wrote: "Long Dog, a scarred and battered veteran of the wars and sun-dance tortures. A legend among the young men because of the infinite durability o his battle-protective charms, and clear-sighted visions, he was also known as a practical joker and comic".

[Ephriam Dickson]

I would like to echoe the fact that Low Dog and Long Dog were two entirely different people.

Low Dog (Sunka Kucigala) was a young Oglala at the time of his transfer to the Standing Rock Agency in the summer of 1881, giving his age as 34 [born c1847]. William Garnett refers to him as an "upstart".

Long Dog (Sunka hanske) was an older Hunkpapa. At the time of his transfer to the Standing Rock Agency in 1881, he was 60 years old [born c1821], a widow, living with his son Black Prairie Dog. He was not in Low Dog's band as stated in an earlier posting, but was in Crow King's band (Hunkpapa).

Ephriam